Ambur biryani is one of the south-Indian special biryani recipes. Ambur is a town in vellore district in Tamilnadu, India and is famous for leather. Ambur is famous for biryani. Authentic recipe is to cook the mutton in slow cooker so I first cooked the mutton in pressure cooker and then proceeded with dum process. I have heard they have more biryani shops than any other town. Seeraga samba rice, a traditional Tamilnadu variety of biryani rice is used for this authentically. That makes this biryani even tastier. The rice is parboiled, meat is cooked separately and both are cooked together on dum on a closed vessel with some weight on top of it. There are different types of biryani and different biryani from many towns. There is another famous biryani called dindugal biryani.
I posted biryani collection recipes last week with all biryani recipes and their side dish and I thought should not post biryani recipe for a while. But this recipe came out so good that I wanted to post it this week. I tried this on Sunday with chicken 65 and it came out Yum!!! I saw a video from a chef making ambur biryani from star biryani hotel, so I adapted from that and tried this recipe. I wanted to share this biryani because of its simplicity.
- Oil – 4 tbsp
- Mutton – ½ kg
- Cinnamon sticks -1
- Cloves – 2
- Cardamom- 2
- Bay leaves – 2
- Star anise – 1
- Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
- Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp
- Garlic – 5 (blended)
- Ginger – 2 inch (blended)
- Red chillies – 4 soaked in 1 tbsp of hot oil. And blended
- Chilli powder -1 tbsp
- Onion – 1.5, sliced
- Tomato – 1,sliced/chopped
- Curd – 5 tbsp
- Mint – ½ cup,chopped
- Coriander leaves – ½ cup,chopped
- Lime – 2 nos
- Salt – 1 tbsp
- Ghee – 1.5 tbsp
- Mint and coriander leaves – 1 tbsp, to garnish
For rice: - Rice – ½ kg
- Salt – 2 tbsp
- Cumin seeds – 1 tbsp
- Heat oil in a big vessel,add clove, cinnamon, cinnamon sticks, bay leaves,cardamom and star anise.
- Now , sprinkle 1 tbsp of curd.
- Add onions, garlic paste and ginger paste. Sauté till they are golden brown.
- Now add the mutton, salt, tomato, remaining curd, mint and coriander leaves. Stir everything and now add the water. Close the lid and boil it under low fire.You can even pressure cook it for 6 whistles.
- Meanwhile boil water and when it is boiling nicely, add rice, salt and cumin seeds to it. Boil till it is half done. Probably should take 6-8 mins.
- When the mutton is cooked, top the rice to it, add ghee and coriander leaves to it. close the vessel with a lid tight and keep some weight (like stones, vessel with water) on top of it and keep on medium for 7 minutes and and low on 5 minutes. Switch off and close and keep for 10 minutes.
Taste great with tomato garlic raita,cucumber carrot raita,mirch ka salan,mutton sukka